Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Liberated!

The other day we had a little visitor in our house - a hummingbird! We live in an Eichler-like home with sliding glass doors in every room leading to an interior atrium and an exterior garden. All of our doors were open and we were enjoying a nice breeze. Then we heard some chirping. We looked around and there, up near the top of the 16' ceiling near the clerestory windows was a little hummingbird beating his wings furiously.

We tried to guide him down to one of the open doors, but the chirping got louder, and his stress was increasing. So we left the room and he found a splinter on the beams on which to rest. When we came back, he was lying on the floor, poor exhausted thing. So we scooped him up and gently put him outside. It only took a moment for him to fly into the nearest tree. There are times when I know how frustrated and then how liberated that little bird felt.

Our cat was very disappointed that she wasn't given an opportunity to get 'up close and personal'.